Spiritual minorities in Hungary, notably the Church of Scientology, have confronted rising discrimination and authorized challenges lately, in response to a number of stories and statements from worldwide human rights our bodies.
In 2017, Hungarian authorities performed sweeping raids on Scientology church buildings and missions throughout the nation. As reported by specialised spiritual freedom journal BitterWinter in March 2023,
“An all-out daybreak raid occurred on 18 and 19 October 2017 in any respect Hungarian Scientology Church buildings and Missions.”
The raids have been a part of a prison investigation accusing Scientology leaders of tax fraud for claiming their core practices as spiritual actions exempt from VAT.
Nevertheless, spiritual students have argued that Scientology’s practices of “auditing” and coaching are certainly spiritual in nature. As American scholar Donald Westbrook acknowledged, these are a part of a
“step-by-step soteriological map supposed to take a person to greater states of consciousness and skill.”
And in addition the Inner Income Service in the US absolutely reviewed all of the practices and granted tax exemption to all US Church buildings in 1993, because it has been carried out in Sweden, Spain, Netherlands, Portugal, SouthAfrica and plenty of others, primarily based on the identical info that Hungary has used.
The focusing on of Scientology seems to be a part of a broader sample of discrimination towards non-traditional religions in Hungary. In a 2018 letter to the Hungarian authorities, the then UN Particular Rapporteurs on FoRB, Minority Points and the one on Privateness, expressed concern about
“discriminatory measures towards the Church of Scientology on the premise of spiritual perception.”
The UN specialists famous that Hungarian authorities had repeatedly denied Scientology the Certificates of Occupancy for its headquarters in Budapest and launched prison investigations resulting in
“the seizure of a number of paperwork together with of a non-public nature and to restrictions on locations of worship.”
Massimo Introvigne, one of the crucial renown worldwide European specialists and sociologist of faith, and who served because the “Consultant on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a particular give attention to discrimination towards Christians and members of different religions” of the Group for Safety and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), argues that Hungary’s actions mirror an exported Russian strategy of utilizing accusations of “extremism” towards minority religions. He writes that
“the concomitancy of the actions primarily based on knowledge safety, taxes, and electrical points shouldn’t be a coincidence. It’s an expression of the publicly acknowledged official hostility to Scientology.”
Hungary Accused of Spiritual Discrimination Towards Church of Scientology
In 2011, Hungary handed a controversial new Faith Legislation that stripped authorized recognition from a whole lot of beforehand registered spiritual teams, together with the Church of Scientology. This regulation has been criticized by the European Court docket of Human Rights and Hungary’s personal Constitutional Court docket for violating spiritual freedom rights.
Since then, the federal government has taken a number of actions particularly focusing on Scientology:
Denying Occupancy for Fundamental Place of Worship
The federal government has repeatedly denied a Certificates of Occupancy for the Church’s headquarters in Budapest, regardless of inspections discovering the constructing protected to occupy. This has left the Church dealing with potential sanctions for utilizing its fundamental place of worship.
In accordance with a letter despatched by the aforementioned UN Particular Rapporteurs to the Hungarian authorities on August 30, 2018:
“The Church appealed the choice to the Administrative and Labour Court docket of Budapest. On 12 September 2017, the Court docket remanded the case to the second occasion to be thought-about once more inside 21 days, making an allowance for all of the proof that was beforehand uncared for, which reportedly proves that the constructing is protected and prepared for use. The process began in December 2017, nonetheless, it has not been accomplished to the current date.”
To this date this subject shouldn’t be resolved they usually proceed to disclaim the occupancy certificates making a scenario of fixed uncertainty about how lengthy will they be capable of function of their place of worship.
Seizing Confidential Spiritual Information: “severe impediments to spiritual freedom” UN says
Hungarian authorities have used knowledge safety legal guidelines to grab confidential spiritual recordsdata, together with “preclear folders” containing non-public communications between Scientologists and their ministers.
Within the UN Particular Rapporteurs’ letter to Hungary, from August 2018 it may be learn:
“On 7 December 2016, the Knowledge Safety Authority launched a knowledge safety investigation of the Church of Scientology and, to this finish, seized varied paperwork from its places of work in Budapest and Nyiregyhaza, together with ‘preclear folders’ that include confidential communications between penitents and their minister.”
In accordance with human rights lawyer Patricia Duval, writing in The Journal of CESNUR,
“Hungary is presently the one nation on the earth that has seized and refuses to return such folders consisting of sacred and confidential pastor-penitent communications.”
The federal government has launched prison investigations into alleged knowledge safety violations and tax evasion by the Church, resulting in a number of police raids on Scientology properties.
The UN inquisitive letter to Hungary describes one such raid:
“On 18 October 2017 at 7.30 a.m., round 60 brokers of the Nationwide Bureau of Investigation raided the Church of Scientology headquarters in Budapest, seized paperwork and sealed the constructing. On the following day at 7.00 a.m., the prison part of the tax workplace executed search warrants and seized paperwork from the Church’s places of work in Budapest and 15 different areas with the aim of investigating doable monetary crimes. As well as, the authorities froze the Church’s financial institution accounts and positioned a lien on the Budapest headquarters.”
A Hungarian court docket later dominated that this raid was disproportionate and unlawful, in response to Duval’s article revealed by the Journal of CESNUR on march-april 2018.
Authorities Statements and Criticism
Hungarian officers have made public statements declaring their intention to limit Scientology actions. Spiritual scholar Massimo Introvigne, in a paper introduced at a College of Jap Finland convention, quoted Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén as stating in 2011:
“So long as I’m within the authorities, Scientology gained’t be acknowledged as a faith.”
These actions have drawn sturdy criticism from worldwide our bodies. The UN Particular Rapporteurs expressed
“severe concern that the prison investigations carried out towards the Church of Scientology, which led to the seizure of a number of paperwork together with of a non-public nature and to restrictions on locations of worship, could also be incompatible with worldwide human rights requirements.”
They additional acknowledged that
“Such acts represent severe impediments to spiritual freedom and to the fulfilment of the rights and freedoms of spiritual minorities as enshrined within the relevant worldwide human rights requirements that Hungary has dedicated to.”
The Church of Scientology maintains it’s being unfairly focused for spiritual discrimination. The scenario highlights ongoing issues about Hungary’s therapy of minority faiths beneath its 2011 Faith Legislation, which has been criticized by worldwide our bodies however stays in drive.
Critics argue that these actions violate ideas of spiritual freedom and state neutrality in direction of faith. The case of Scientology in Hungary raises broader questions in regards to the safety of minority spiritual rights within the nation and using administrative and authorized measures to limit unpopular spiritual teams.
The UN Particular Rapporteurs urged Hungary to make sure its actions are “appropriate with worldwide human rights requirements, notably concerning the precise to freedom of faith or perception and the precise to privateness.” They referred to as on the federal government to supply “detailed and up to date info on the concrete measures undertaken by the Authorities of Hungary to make sure safety and promotion of spiritual freedom and of the human rights of spiritual minorities within the nation.“
Because the authorized battles proceed, human rights advocates argue that Hungary is utilizing tax and privateness legal guidelines plus different measures to discriminate towards Scientology particularly and in addition towards different minority faiths in violation of worldwide spiritual freedom ideas. The continued scenario highlights ongoing tensions between nationalist ideologies and protections for spiritual minorities in components of Europe.
